Quick Search

Finding a new home is hard. You have to balance your wish list — bay windows, a breakfast nook, and beautiful mahogany built-ins for your personal library — with your budget and desired location. But when you manage to find that rare, affordable combination of what you’re looking for, you still aren’t out of the woods. Your home cannot escape or transcend its neighborhood, along with all of its regulations, establishments, and fellow residents. When you pull up to your potential home, chances are you’ll already be glancing up and down the street to gauge how well-maintained the surrounding homes are and whether this is a street on which you can envision a peaceful home life. But that’s not the only thing to consider about your new neighborhood.

1. Property Taxes

As they say, nothing is certain except for death and taxes. There’s no escaping the impact of the local tax code, so you’re going to want to familiarize yourself with the rates as well as what they include. By charging separate fees for trash pickup and sewer service, some municipalities appear to have exceptionally low taxes, when in reality, residents end up paying about the same.

2. School Districts

Even if this doesn’t directly apply to you by way of children, you’re still going to want to know which school district you live in for the above reason. You always need your school district code to complete your taxes. And if you have children, or think you might soon, what district you’re in will affect a lot more than paperwork. Sites like Niche K12 offer testing statistics, user reviews, and contact information for hundreds of thousands of schools nationwide — public, private, and charter. A tour of the school will also give you great insight into what your child’s environment could be.

3. Green Spaces

Some people are content to stay within the confines of their lawn, but others get the need for a little local adventure from time to time. Nearby state, county, or city parks provide health benefits and recreational opportunities beyond what your backyard can offer you. In fact, studies show that adventures in nature are linked to lower blood pressure, reduced obesity rates, and mitigated pollution effects. If you’re one of those people that likes to break free, and break out the bike, from time to time, see how far your potential home is from bike paths and parks, as well as seeing what amenities the parks offer, such as tennis courts, docks, or grills.

4. Crime

Everyone wants the freedom to go for an evening walk without worry or feel secure, even if they forget to lock the front door at night. To check up on the crime rate in your potential neighborhood before you sign up for a decade or more of living there, read the local police blogs or go on CrimeReports.com to see a map of offenses and trends — if crime is relatively low but has been ramping up for a few years, that doesn’t bode well for your future. If you have young children, FamilyWatchdog.us provides maps and details of nearby sex offenders. Drive around wide radius of the house in question to get a feel for the surrounding area — as little as a few streets can separate a safer neighborhood from a more dangerous one, and it’s best to know where those boundaries are.

5. Natural Phenomena

Surely, you won’t be caught off guard in a hurricane or blizzard — those meteorological phenomena have well-established zones. But floodplains can be a bit more subtle. Flooding is huge for homeowners for many reasons: It lowers the property’s value, destroys belongings, and is not typically covered by homeowner’s insurance. Flood protection is a very expensive separate policy that you’ll absolutely want if you need it, but if you never do, it’s a lot of money down the drain. To check your property, visit FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center or FloodSmart.gov to see what your insurance bill might look like.

Guest blogger, Sam Radbil is a contributing member of the marketing and communications team at ABODO, an online apartment marketplace. ABODO Denver apartments was founded in 2013 in Madison, Wisconsin. And in just three years, the company has grown to more than 30 employees, raised over $8M in outside funding and helps more than half a million renters find a new home each month.

Things are finally progressing with the single family home project in the heart of LoHi. We should be breaking ground this Fall and all three single family homes should be completed and ready for move-in next Spring. These Copperleaf-built homes will feature open layouts, main-floor office space, 4 bedrooms & 3 bathrooms on the second floor, finished basements, actual yard space, 3-car garages, and sophisticated finishes throughout. For More info, please visit LoHi3.com.

The Denver model home is centrally located in the University Hill neighborhood at 3401 S. Clermont St. and has been designed to fit the needs of today’s buyers that are looking for a new home without having to settle on location. The model is situated on a standard 6,250 (50’ x 125’) Denver lot which gives us the ability to duplicate this home in just about any Denver neighborhood without having to expend time or money on designing new architectural or construction documents. The actual home features almost 2,800 square feet of living space above ground and a full basement that totals over 1,100 square feet.

The main floor consists of an explosion of space at the entry with its two-story, volume ceiling. The rest of the main floor boasts a huge great room encompassing the kitchen, family room and dining space. Between the kitchen and the attached two car garage you’ll find an awesome mudroom and from the dining room you have access to a large covered patio and access to a nicely sized back yard.

The upper floor includes 4 bedrooms (none of which share a wall with another bedroom), a spacious loft, and three full baths. The master bedroom is spacious and the bathroom feels like a spa with its spacious shower and free standing bathtub.

Copperleaf Homes has perfected the custom homebuilding / home buying process to the point where it feels truly seamless. If you’re a new home snob (much like me) but aren’t willing to relocate to the suburbs (again, like me), Copperleaf gives you control of where your new home will be built, what it will look like and how it will live… all at an amazingly affordable price.

For additional information on how to start this process, give me a call or shoot me a text at 303.570.8561 or email me at Jesus@DenverRealEstate.com.

I recently had the pleasure of assisting a couple of clients in the purchase of condominiums at the luxurious Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch. And let me tell you, the property was breathtaking. Before I dive into the details of the property, let me first give you a bit of the backstory…

Back in 2006 the ownership group at the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch made a decision to take a portion of the hotel rooms and convert them into 50 condominiums. Upon completion of the conversion 26 of the 50 units sold and closed. Due to the climate in the overall economy the ownership group opted to remove the remaining 24 units from the market and place them into the hotel’s rental program.

Fast forward to January of 2015… Due to constant and continued demand, the ownership group made the decision to finally list the remaining 24 units at extraordinary pricing. On average The Residences at the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch are listed at less than $1,000 per square foot. Competing properties in Vail are currently selling for over $2,000 per square foot. Folks, this is truly an opportunity that seldom comes around.

For those not familiar with the property, it was recently named The Best Ski Hotel in the World by the World Ski Awards. Beyond its 180 guest rooms, the property features Wolfgang Puck’s 4,400 square foot Spago fine dining restaurant. After dining or after a day on the slopes, the Bachelor Lounge is the place to unwind. Whether it be with a glass or wine, a fine spirit or a nice cigar. The hotel also boasts a fabulous Spa that was named the Number 1 Spa in the U.S. The spa features 19 treatment rooms, a grotto and full nail salon.

Whew…What a year 2014 was! The realty market here in Denver continued at a breakneck speed. All signs are pointing to continued appreciation and overall success for 2015.

In all honesty, as grand as 2014 was, 2013 seemed to be a busier year – at least to me it did. I took the time this week to compare the two years – I hope you’ll find this information as fascinating as I did. (Now, keep in mind that this is for the 7-county Denver metro area which includes Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson Counties).

If you’re interested in something more specific to your city or neighborhood or perhaps something more broad, just contact me by clicking here.

January of 2013 provided a total of 2,626 closings versus 2,591 closings in 2014. However, the total dollar volume in 2013 was $728,546,910 compared to $790,149,010 in 2014.

February of 2013 – 2,973 closings compared to 2,959 in 2014. Dollar wise, February of 2013 totaled $829,112,955 compared to $879,382,388.

March of 2013 sales were 4,139 with $1,232,993,861 in volume.March of 2014 equated to 3,807 closed deals for a total of $1,190,306,417 in volume.

April of 2013 – 4,646 deals for $1,447,936,733. April of 2014 – 4,486 deals for $1,461,257,397 in volume.

May of 2013 – 5,473 transactions for a total of $1,700,437,180 compared to 5,284 deals and $1,769,245,212 in May of 2014.

June of 2013 – 5,463 transactions for $1,747,957,694 in production. June of 2014 – 5,684 deals for $1,914,390,481.

July of 2013 – 5,753 sales for $1,844,752,144 compared to July of 2014 – 5,567 sales for $1,871,830,945.

August of 2013 – 5,408 deals for $1,697,452,968 compared to August of 2014 – 5,113 sales for $1,683,752,033 in dollar volume.

September of 2013 – 4,434 sales for $1,364,065,201. September of 2014 – 4,829 sales for $1,539,488,342

October of 2013 – 4,245 sales for $1,286,064,043. October of 2014 – 4,681 sales for $1,521,036,348

November of 2013 – 3,571 sales for $1,085,102,575 compared to 3,684 sales for $1,213,805,338 in November of 2014.

December of 2013 – 3,649 sales for $1,118,341,684 in production. December of 2014 – 3,930 sales for $1,334,739,085 in volume.

Okay, I know that’s a ton of numbers to digest… here’s the breakdown. There were 235 more sales in 2014 than 2013 (52,615 compared 52,380). However, there was almost a $1.1 billion dollar difference in production. $16,082,763,948 for 2013 compared to $17,169,382,996 in 2014. This data confirms what I’ve been saying for quite some time… INVENTORY IS LOW AND PRICES ARE INCHING UP.

It’s hard to believe that the original building permits for this Lower Highland gem were pulled over a decade ago – how time flies…

Confluence Heights, located at 2200 W. 29th Ave (on 29th between Vallejo St. and Wyandot St.), offers some pretty impressive northern views of the Asbury Methodist Church, home of the Sanctuary Downtown and amazing Front Range and Downtown Denver skyline to the south and east.

Solid Construction in Lower Highland

Confluence Heights stands apart from many complexes in LoHi (or Denver’s North Side for my natives) due to the fact that it was one of the last for-sale complexes of this size to be built in the neighborhood – every other complex of this magnitude built after the completion of Confluence Heights has been a for-rent apartment house.

Also, Confluence Heights is one of the few buildings built using a post-tension concrete and steel construction method instead of what we’re seeing nowadays which is a wood frame approach. Although the latter is widely accepted, the concrete and steel approach is far superior when it comes to sound mitigation and overall quality.

The building also includes and amazing rooftop deck which is perfect for stargazing, hosting a margarita party or catching the multiple 4th of July firework shows. Confluence Heights also has a strong retail / commercial presence on the ground floor that includes The Green Shirt Dry Cleaning and Pearl Dentistry.

The thing I love the most about this building is its proximity to everything the LoHi neighborhood has to offer. From Confluence Heights one can walk to countless restaurants like Linger, Uncle, Lola, Root Down, Old Major and Z-Cuisine; and plenty of watering holes including Highland Tap & Burger (my personal favorite and THE place to catch a ball game on one of their 16 high-def televisions), Forest 5, Zio Romolo’s Alley Bar (Tuesday night is Grateful Dead / Phish night at Zio’s) & Classic Tavern. When it comes to fitness and recreation, one is within shouting distance to LoHi Athletic Club, The Freyja Project, Vitruvian Fitness, the soon to open Fierce45 (which from what I’ve heard will redefine the way we workout), Ashland Recriation Center & indoor pool, Hirshorn Park and great access to miles and miles of jogging and bike trails. One also has access to the Highland Pedestrian Bridge connecting you to Union Station, and all things (LoDo) Lower Downtown Denver.

Downtown Denver Views from LoHi

Overall, Confluence Heights truly is a great option for anyone looking to own in Denver’s best neighborhood in a high quality, highly appointed, maintenance-free property.

Many of my friends, clients and acquaintances have heard me boast about Copperleaf Homes, the custom homebuilder I’m representing here in the Denver metro area. Today I took a second to tour the model home Copperleaf Homes is in the process of building at 3401 S. Clermont St. in the southeast Denver neighborhood of University Hills… and folks, it is a sight for sore eyes! That’s right, a custom homebuilder that has taken the time and energy to build a model home dedicated to providing you a sneak-peek at the design and quality they’re capable of building.

The second you pull up to the model you notice something different. Sure, the home’s architecture leans contemporary but it feels so much more put together than many of the modern and contemporary boxy homes we’re seeing in Denver’s urban neighborhoods. The model’s architecture feels rich, stately, well thought out.

As you approach the home you notice the beautiful stacked stone and blocked limestone detail on the front façade.

As you enter the home you’re welcomed by an explosion of space with two-story volume ceilings. Next to the foyer you’ll find a spacious study and full bathroom, which can double as a spare bedroom. Continuing on the main-floor, you’ll find a spacious family room, dining room and kitchen set up as a one big space, a mudroom that leads you to the attached garage and a covered patio leading to the back yard.

Upstairs you’ll find a junior suite with it’s own full bathroom towards the front of the home. Two spacious secondary bedrooms bookend a Jack-and-Jill bath, a spacious loft, full laundry room with a laundry sink and the master suite complete with a 5-piece master bathroom and walk-in closet anchors the back of the home.

Two Story Volume at Entry of Model Home

The fully finished basement features a fair amount of storage, an ample bedroom, full bathroom and a remarkable wet bar that includes a wine fridge and dishwasher.

This model home truly encompasses all the attributes that today’s buyer is looking for without having to settle on location. Since Copperleaf Homes is a custom builder, they can build this or any home just about anywhere in the Denver-metro area. Copperleaf can build on your lot or I can help you find a lot in whichever neighborhood suits your needs and we can build whatever you’d like.

If time is of the essence, worry not as Copperleaf already has a few homes under construction that one could move into as soon this spring. We have a duplex under construction in Berkeley just steps from the Tennyson St. strip and we’ll have three large single family homes in the planning process which will be built right in the Potter Highlands historic district in LoHi.

If you’re like me and not willing to give up your favorite neighborhood but can appreciate a newly built home then Copperleaf Homes is the way to have your cake and eat it too. For more information on building a new, affordable custom home anywhere in the Denver metro area, call or text me at 303.570.8561 or email me at Jesus@DenverRealEstate.com